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ARS Home » Northeast Area » Beltsville, Maryland (BARC) » Beltsville Agricultural Research Center » Systematic Entomology Laboratory » Research » Research Project #427338

Research Project: Open-Access Web Delivery of Global Prey/Predator Association Data for Sternorrhyncha(Hemiptera)&Neuropterida(Neuroptera, Megaloptera, Raphidioptera)

Location: Systematic Entomology Laboratory

Project Number: 8042-22000-290-005-S
Project Type: Non-Assistance Cooperative Agreement

Start Date: Sep 1, 2014
End Date: Aug 31, 2019

Objective:
To upgrade the current Lacewing Digital Library (LDL) database and web delivery platform to include sternorrhynchous (Hemiptera) prey associations and corresponding data, upgrade the LDL database and web delivery platform to ensure flexibility in future development and evolution of the LDL as it relates to prey associations, and provide a web delivery platform where associations can also be linked to other Sternorrhyncha databases (e.g., ScaleNet, AphidNet).

Approach:
While it has been commonly accepted that the Neutopterida feed on small, soft-bodied insects, there have been few comprehensive works to assess this. In 2004, the first comprehensive assessment of Coccoidea/Neuropterida associations was published. Since the publication of that work, the original association database to include the entire Sternorhyncha (scale insects, aphids, whiteflies, and psyllids) worldwide has been expanded. As the Sternorrhyncha contains numerous important global agricultural pests, this expanded work has applications in both systematics and biological control programs in the U.S. and abroad. The expanded dataset will be incorporated into the Neuropterida Species of the World (NSW) module of the Lacewing Digital Library (LDL) web portal. Within the NSW, which has been on-line since 2003, search functionality will facilitate the flexible recovery of taxon associations and related data. The creation of an open-access, web-based, vehicle for the delivery of information relating to prey/predator associations – and associated data on plant hosts of the prey, geographic location of observations, differentiation of field and laboratory observations, and specimen vouchering information – will provide enhanced user access, and greater opportunities for future data development and maintenance, versus the alternative of a static printed publication.